Content provided in partnership with
The oldest original synagogue building in the Diaspora: the Delos synagogue reconsidered
Hesperia, Fall, 2004 by Monika Trumper
(145.) It was probably equipped with three marble thresholds, an undecorated pavement of marble chips, and stucco with a red plinth course; see above, pp. 521-523 and n. 23.
- Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »
(146.) Pagan cults engaged in the offering of sacrifices. The necessary altars were usually set up under the open sky, i.e., in courtyards, open spaces, streets in front of houses, etc. In houses, where modest sacrifices of vegetables and incense will have prevailed, altars were also placed in rooms (see Delos VI, pp. 22-25; Delos VIII, p. 201; Delos IX, pp. 28-35, 64-69, 76-85, 88-102, 105-110, 112-149, 152-189; GD 124). The honorary decree ID 1520, which was found in the Etablissement des Poseidoniastes (GD 57), attests a clear differentiation between sacred and profane spaces within this meeting place: the honored person, the Roman banker M. Minatius Sexti f., is allowed to choose any (profane) place within the building for the erection of his statue, with the exception of the sanctuary with its prostoa and naoi (line 25). Contrary to Binder 1999, p. 314, n. 174, the term "temenos" does not refer to the "sacred" hall E, but to the piece of land on which the house was built. For the restoration and interpretation of this inscription see Bruneau 1970, pp. 623-626; for the first translation see Tod 1934, which differs in several points with the recent (and less convincing) translation by McLean (1996, pp. 197-200).
The situation might have been slightly different in sanctuaries, which often included banquet rooms or halls as well (Roux 1973; McLean 1996). The latter were spatially and probably functionally more closely linked to the cult than was the case in the Etablissement des Poseidoniastes. A notably suggestive comparison may be drawn between GD 80 and the Samothrakeion (GD 93), which comprised a large broad hall with a colonnade in front and a floor with raised borders inside; originally interpreted as a temple (Delos XVI), it has been convincingly identified as a banquet hall (Roux 1973, pp. 548-554). At least in its second phase, however, the building was equipped with a niche (for a votive or cult statue?), and an [sections]sxara (altar) was constructed in front of it. A comprehensive comparison between other sanctuaries with or without banquet halls and GD 80 would show that the latter lacks essential features of pagan sacred precincts (such as altars, temples, shrines, cult statues).
(147.) Given couches with a uniform size of 1.80 x 0.90 m, eight on the west wall and seven each on the north and south walls (including enough space for tables in front of each kline), there would have been 22 couches; with couches measuring 2.00 x 1.00 m, thus eight on the west wall and six each on the north and south walls, there would have been space for 20. The large room E in the Etablissement des Poseidoniastes (GD 57) offered space for 19-20 couches.
(148.) Runesson (2001b, p. 90) points out that the large hall of the synagogue in Ostia never changed its form and function, and concludes that "similarity in plan is also one of the main arguments for the continuous use of the building as a synagogue for several scholars."
Find Research Guides for:
Most Popular Articles in Reference
- The importance of understanding organizational culture
- Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students
- What factors attract foreign direct investment?
- Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...
- How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques
- More »